Exam 3: Foundations of Planning

How do we overcome the challenge of scanning a global business environment? One way is for management to subscribe to news services that review newspapers and books from around the globe and provide summaries to client companies.

An organization's objectives and strategies define its purpose.

How is competitive intelligence useful?

The ___________ of RJ Nabisco is "to meet the needs of consumers through innovative marketing and manufacturing of healthful, good- tasting products that contribute to a healthy lifestyle and consumer well- being around the world, yielding above- average returns over time and for our shareholders."

Application of MBO Kay was excited. She had just returned from a manager's retreat where MBO had been discussed. This had never been used in her organization before, and she was enthusiastic about implementing the program in her department. She received the OK from her manager, the division head, who vaguely remembered having heard of the program several years earlier. Kay looked over the handout she had received. She was still somewhat confused on who was to choose the goals for the employees. However, she knew that the goals once chosen needed to be specific and have explicit time periods attached. Even though there was a lot of work to do in order to implement the program, Kay was excited. She knew this would prove to be beneficial to the organization. -Kay did not want her employees to see MBO as setting___________ , which might limit their thinking and achievements.

A project plan is an example of a(n)___________ plan.

MBO advocates participative goal setting. Research comparing participative set and assigned goals on performance

NUCOR is so efficient in its steel production and casting processes that it is the only United States steel producer that regularly exports its products directly to Japan. This is an example of NUCOR's

Organizations with formal plans will always outperform those organizations without formal plans.

The organizational formality of Apple Computer ultimately led to

Application of MBO Kay was excited. She had just returned from a manager's retreat where MBO had been discussed. This had never been used in her organization before, and she was enthusiastic about implementing the program in her department. She received the OK from her manager, the division head, who vaguely remembered having heard of the program several years earlier. Kay looked over the handout she had received. She was still somewhat confused on who was to choose the goals for the employees. However, she knew that the goals once chosen needed to be specific and have explicit time periods attached. Even though there was a lot of work to do in order to implement the program, Kay was excited. She knew this would prove to be beneficial to the organization. -Kay knew she wanted her employees to view the objectives as which of the following?

Larry's Company is in the process of buying a smaller competitor and incorporating that company's resources into his business. This is an example of which of the following types of strategies?

Application of SWOT Analysis Terry had been told to reexamine the strategic niche their company held in the cosmetic industry. Top management did not want the company caught unaware of any changes occurring. Terry began reviewing a list of factors in his mind. There had been some negative publicity lately due to cosmetic testing on animals. The animals were well treated, but they were used to test new products. Positively, sales industry- wide was up 10%. Women were buying more cosmetics in general, which was nothing but good for the company. Another positive factor was their personnel. They had good people working in the company, particularly in research and development. The only other negative Terry could find was that the advertising campaign that was begun last year had not shown the results they had hoped for. Something needed to be done in that department. Terry began to compile his report. -Which analysis would assist Terry to identify a strategic niche that the company could exploit?

Application of Porter's Competitive Strategy Stacie sighed. Her general manager had just left after giving her the latest assignment- readdress the competitive advantage of their company. By Friday's meeting, Stacie was to have developed three differing strategies the business could use in order to maintain its competitive advantage. Its computer business was slowly losing market share to its competitors, and everyone realized something needed to be done. Stacie glanced through the article by Michael Porter that her manager had left with her. According to Porter, there were three differing types of strategies they could choose from. Stacie began wondering if there was a way they could make their computers cheaper, which would allow them to then sell at a lower price. If they could reduce price by $100 a machine, they would be the industry leaders in price. Stacie wondered if they could find any lower- priced suppliers for the more expensive parts of their computers. She knew that their computers appealed particularly to small business owners due in part to price. They were able to offer the lower price because their computers were not as powerful or fast as some machines, but did contain the necessary word processing, database, and spreadsheet capabilities necessary for a typical small business owner. The lack of frills with the solid three program capabilities, plus their known reputation for quality had worked for them in the past. Stacie wondered if perhaps they needed to look at a smaller segment of the market, maybe small businesses with large accounts receivables that would fully utilize their specific database. She knew that would cut their market by 1/8 but maybe achieving a definite market niche would help. Stacie began compiling her report for Friday's meeting. -As the market for larger desktop computers was replaced by smaller portable hand- held models, there has been a decline in sales of traditional models regardless of how much the price is reduced. At this point, what type of strategy should be pursued by Stacey's group?

___________ is a process by which individuals pursue opportunities, fulfilling needs and wants through innovation, without regard to the resources they currently control.

Which of the following is an argument against formal planning?

Short- term plans describe how an organization's overall objectives are to be achieved.

Which of the following is not a step in objective setting?

Which of the following is not an ingredient in MBO programs?

Porter's term for an organization that cannot use one of his three strategies is